158 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS.— CLASS IV. PISCES. 
Loprnorrs. — These fishes belong to the Mediterranean. They have a 
short head, with an osseous crest, surmounted by ¢ spine. 
Tusuryes. —'The Laneet-fishes. These form the Winth Family of the 
Spiny-fins. They have a compressed, oblong body, small mouth, and a 
sinzle row of trenchant teeth in the jaws; but their distinguishing charac- 
ters are the short, lance-like spines on the sides of the tail, and a horizontal 
one before the dorsal. ‘Their spines are extremely powerful, and are used 
very eflicaciously as weapons of defence. Their food is fue’, and other 
marine plants. The family is small; we know of but six genera, most of 
them inhabiting the Oriental seas. 
Puaryncin.ze Lanyrinritorm. The Tenth Family of Spiny-fins. 
By the term Pharyngine labyrinthiforme, is meant, that the upper mem- 
branes of the pharynx are divided into small, irregular leaves, more or less 
numerous in the different genera, containing cells between them, which the 
| fish can, at pleasure, fill with water, and, by ejecting a portion of this 
water, moisten its gills, and thus continue its circulation while out. of its 
proper element. From this contrivance of Nature herself, we are to 
understand that, if the gills of a fish can be kept properly moistened, by 
salt water or by fresh, according as the fish is naturally an inhabitant of one 
or the other, it may be carried alive over land to an indefinite distance. By 
means of this apparatus, these fishes are enabled to quit the pool or rivulet, 
which constitutes their usual element, and move to a considerable distance 
over land. This singular faculty was unknown to the ancients ; and the peo- 
ple in India still believe that these fishes fall from heaven. 
In cold and temperate climates this apparatus is not necessary, because 
all the ponds and streams there, which are capable of supporting fish, are 
perenmal, and never dried up, except in seasons of extreme drought, when, 
of course, all the fishes perish. But in tropical countries, where the seasons 
are alternate drought and rain, there is neither food nor water for a fish dur- 
ing the one season, and plenty of both during the other. Hence these fishes 
are furnished with this peculiar apparatus in the pharynx, by means of 
which they are enabled to follow the water over dry obstacles, and, in some 
of the species, to climb steep banks, or even trees, in the course of their 
instinctive journeys. The following are the genera : 
Awnanas. — The Climbing Perch of India. This genus has the labyrinths 
highly complicated ; the third pharyngi have pavement teeth, and there are 
others behind the cranium; the body is round in the section, and covered 
with strong scales; the head is large, the muzzle short and blunt, and the 
mouth small; their Jateral line is interrupted for the posterior third; the 
margins of the operculum, super-operculum, and inter-operculum are strong- 
